He was pushed hard from the bed and fell to the floor. He hit his head in the fall and groaned as he held his head with his hand.
“What are you doing?” he asked. He rubbed his head and tried to stand up with his other hand, using the bed for support.
“You! You what are you doing?! Why are you with me?!”
Yurine, of course, was the one who treated him so cruelly. Her method was not only harsh but also heartbreaking. Being forcibly pushed out of bed was a bad way to wake someone up, and that method had been chosen for Yu by Yurine herself.
“Uh...”
He was so used to sleeping next to Yurine that he slept next to her at night without thinking, even though there were two beds in their room. At the time it seemed to him the most normal thing in the world.
Yu also didn't like sleeping alone after getting used to sleeping with someone.
“It's just habit,” he said as he stood up. “Just when we were getting used to each other, to be met with such a reaction hurt me not only physically but emotionally as well.”
“Hmph!”
“You're so cute when you puff out your cheeks.”
“HMPH!”
Yurine turned her back and hid her face from Yu. Despite what had happened, Yu thought she was in good spirits.
“They're heating water for the upper floors today, let's wash up and go down for breakfast.”
In the guild where they stayed, hot water was provided for a different floor every day. Those on the floor whose turn it was to receive hot water would carry the water heated for them to their rooms in buckets and use it for bathing.
In comparison, he preferred Lucia's inn to this one. There he could get hot water and take a bath whenever he wanted, instead of waiting in line every three days.
Of course, since this was an adventurers' guild, the guild owner had installed bathtubs in every room to allow adventurers to bathe alone after returning from their missions. In Lucia's inn, the rooms with bathtubs were special and you had to pay extra.
And if adventurers returning from their missions hadn't yet had their turn for hot water, they could use the communal bathroom. So this place was equipped for the needs of its guests.
“Can you come with me, I don't want to leave you alone.” Considering that Satoshi had died alone, Yu, who was prone to paranoia, could not leave Yurine alone, not even for a minute.
“Intruders taste my wrath, fool. I am not a weak person.”
“But it will make me feel more comfortable, please.”
***
“Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Lylphia replied in kind.
He thought she would get over it quickly and focus fully on her mission, but Lylphia's face was still grim. The others must have had faces like hers.
Yu couldn't judge them for being like this. Losing a friend was not an easy thing to get over. Still, he found Lylphia's reaction senseless, there was no connection between her and Satoshi.
“Maybe it's because she takes it seriously.”
Yu was upset, he was hurt too, but now he acted as if everything was normal. And only last night he had thought about Satoshi, questioned by his conscience.
“Why?” he asked himself when he realized this. “Maybe... Every time I kill someone, the guilt of killing them diminishes. Or I am just a bad person…”
Lylphia waved her hand in front of Yu's face.
“What if I kill someone? I didn't kill Satoshi... He died because of my choices? What am I thinking?” The thoughts were appearing in his head without him being able to help himself. “No, it's not my fault. Of course not! Am I... Am I a bad person?” The answer was obvious. “Why I didn’t feel pain now? Stella or Satoshi, I feel nothing now. What’s wrong with me? Am I relieved that I thought about them or slept with Yurine last night?”
“Mr. Valarfin?”
Lylphia was waving her hand in front of his face, but he didn't notice until she called out to him.
“Yes?”
“I thought something was wrong when it suddenly stopped.”
“It's okay.”
They had met Lylphia on the third floor, and after Yu had recovered, they started down the stairs.
“Blaming myself for what happened is not going to help me.” He knew he was only lowering his morale. “Let's see how the others are.”
He entered the parlor with Lylphia and Yurine. Compared to the first time they had been here, there were fewer people in the guild, the tables were half empty and those inside were quiet as they ate their breakfast.
The faces of those in his group were, as he had expected, no different from yesterday's.
“Good morning,” he said as he sat down at the table. Yurine went to his right, Lylphia to his left.
“Good morning, Mr. Valarfin.”
“Good morning.”
Raul remained silent as Sivina and Ana answered him. Raul approached Sivina.
“With Satoshi, he wasn't this close to the girls.” Or rather, not so close to Sivina. “Does he like her? I thought they were fighting for both of them, was it just Sivina? Or maybe it was just Satoshi who wanted both because he was helpless. Whatever.”
They settled down completely around the round table and a girl who had not yet reached puberty brought them their breakfast.
There was cheese, olives, eggs, salami, water and bread. They all quietly began to eat what was in front of them.
“I wonder what the food of this world tastes like?” He hadn't tasted any food since his first night.
He had heard that there were things that dulled his sense of taste when he was on Earth, but he didn't know the details. He was afraid of not being able to taste for the rest of his life.
He had done a few experiments. He had tried eating a lot of spicy, sweet, salty and sugary things; he had tried eating the same food to the point of upsetting his stomach, but it all ended in vomiting.
“So? We just shut up and eat?” He was not used to eating in silence like this. On normal days he and Yurine would talk about the day's activities.
“What are we going to do?” Yurine stopped eating. Every morning she did the same thing. She didn't eat breakfast, ate too much for lunch and too little for dinner.
“Why did you stop, Yurine? Go on.”
They were supposed to talk business, but he was more concerned about Yurine's nutrition.
“I'm full.”
Yu sighed. He couldn't force her to eat if she said she was full.
“One of us will check the names on the list Lylphia brought yesterday. The rest of us will take a walk in the forest.”
“Forest?” Sivina asked after swallowing her bite.
“Yes, the forest. We're going on a research trip.” That's why yesterday he called someone who knew the forest. “After you left, Yurine and I found a forester and I got a map of the forest from him.”
He believed his targets were hiding in the forest, and if so, there had to be certain areas where he could live. William Berry may have been a terrible killer with a bad reputation, but there were monsters in this world and he could not live anywhere in the forest as if nothing wrong.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“If he lives in the surrounding forest, as we think he does, his first priority should be to get clean water. We should look near the water.”
“There is a stream running through the forest, you can drink water from it.”
Lylphia's briefing was the same as that of the forester they spoke to yesterday.
“Can't water wells be found in the forest?” Sivina asked. Yu understood what she meant, she was trying to say that it didn't necessarily have to be near a stream. “Maybe he is near one of them, or he has dug himself a well. It's not easy, but he's been here for years, he can do it.”
“According to the forester, the water wells are all located in the city...”
“Also, the water wells are in fixed points, the stream is spread over a wider area. Assuming he would want to keep moving, he wouldn't bother with wells.”
“Tch...” Yu gritted his teeth when Raul, a ranger, interrupted him. He hated that this was happening and he had already thought the same thing himself. “...like Raul said, I don't think he's going to dig a well, I'd say maybe in a corner of the forest where no one will find it, yet, he has to leave because he has to move around all the time.”
In his world there were ways to turn muddy water into clean water, but he did not mention that it would be difficult to do here.
“If he digs a water well where no one can find it, the whole trip will be in vain.”
“Who will take part in the research?” Lylphia asked.
Yu had predetermined who would go.
“Yurine and I are already ready,” he thought he should join them since he had put himself in the position of leader. “You're in because you can use fire magic in case of danger, and Sivina will be there because she's good at melee combat. Raul will join us as he is a tracker. Ana will research the names on the list.” He didn't want to leave Ana out of the group, but he believed the division of tasks was fair as it was.
“Ana can do magic too.” Sivina's natural instinct was to defend her friend, she didn't want her friend to be alone.
“And why are you telling us what to do?” Just like yesterday, Raul was again questioning Yu's authority.
Yu ignored him and began to explain why he had made this distribution. “We need your fighting power and Yurine’s healing magic. Lylphia is coming because she has fire magic and Raul because he is a trackker. I'm coming because I won't leave Yurine alone.”
“I think the group distribution makes sense, when we look for names.” He stated that he had no main problem.
“I think if Yu and Yurine are inseparable, it's better for them to investigate the names. Besides, it's dangerous for a child to go into the forest.”
"Yu?"
He hadn't heard himself called by name for a while. When Lylphia suddenly said Yu, he felt his own name was strange.
“Besides, you can't fight, can you? It's safer for you this way.”
“Yes, let's do that. A superior being like me doesn't need to be wandering around in places like that.”
Sivina made a good argument in support of Lylphia.
It was also the first time a decision was made without Yu's input.
“Ana?” Yu looked at Ana.
“If that's what the group decides, that's fine with me.”
“Fine. I had already made such a distribution because I couldn't be proud of taking safe work for myself and giving dangerous work to others. If that's your preference, that's fine.”
If the distribution of tasks had been as he said, he would not have revealed his intentions in making the distribution, but he confessed his real intentions so Ana would not feel like she was being thrown out of the group.
“Around noon the forester we spoke to will be here, I hired him to guide me through the forest.”
The forester he told about was a man who had spent most of his life in the forest, he would be a good guide in the forest.
“It's not clear how many days your research trip will last, so you'd better take a few days' worth of food and drink with you. You can arrange that, I'll move on to the next topic.”
“The other thing? Is there something else?”
“Of course, Lylphia. You have to plan ahead where to look in the forest.”
From the map the forester had given him and from what he had told him, Yu thought that the killer could live no more than a few hours away from the river.
“As we just mentioned, the killer has to be close to the river to meet its water needs. I think it would be right to search a three-hour radius from the river, taking into account the travel time and the return time. You have to search both west and east of the river, so your mission will probably take a few days.”
Was six hours of water travel a day acceptable for a person living in the medieval? Yu didn't know, but it must have been acceptable for a fugitive.
“There's one little thing that throws a wrench in our assumption here, and that's the magical abilities of our targets. We don't have any information that William Berry can use magic, but if Sony is with him, things would change.”
“What do you mean?” Sivina asked.
“Sony is a mage, isn't he?” Maron Martin told Yu he was. “If he can do water magic, can he create drinking water for himself, or is water magic like bending existing water?”
Perhaps the water created was naturally salty and therefore undrinkable. It was necessary to learn how magic works.
“Creating drinking water...” Lylphia thought about Yu's idea for a while. “Honestly, I never thought of it, but it might be possible. But I don't think Sony can do something like that.”
“Why?”
“I don't really know Sony, I've only seen him a few times, but our headmaster can only use light and earth spells. I don't know his mother was a mage or not, but if his mother is not a water mage, Sony can probably only use light and earth magic like his father.”
“There are different theories about magic from different quarters, but the most common one is that it is hereditary. If everyone in the family uses fire magic, it is unlikely that the next member of the family will use earth magic. It is quite exceptional to be predisposed to a different type of magic in a family.”
Yurine made a statement about magic after Lylphia. If magic was hereditary, Yu would never be able to use magic.
“What a pity...”
The little hope he had that he could use magic was now completely gone.
“It might even raise suspicion of deception, it's that exceptional. If Sony's mother or any of his ancestors didn't use water magic, if Sony doesn't have this type of magic in his blood, he can't use it, and as far as we know he doesn't.”
“So my children may not be able to use magic either...”
Yu could start a generation without core.
“I have a question.”
“What are you going to ask?” Lylphia turned to Ana.
“Why are you putting Mr. Sony and the Redchapel Killer on the same side?”
“They could be on the same side, Sony could have been killed,” Yu answered Ana and continued. “All we know is that William Berry mentioned Sony and a few others. Maybe he killed them, but if so, why would he mention their names out of nowhere? We can't rule out the possibility that Sony helped William.”
“Why would the son of a successful man and a powerful mage do such a thing? I don't understand.”
“I don't understand it either, Lylphia.” What could be his motivation for stealing and living on the run when he could have had a good life? “But the killer's face is known, so when he needs to get supplies from town, he can't do that. He knows he stole money from the houses he broke into, so he has to dispose of it in town somehow. Since he's stealing money, he needs someone to shop in town, and it could be Sony or someone else.”
“What was that bastard thinking when he did that?” Yurine had asked a legitimate question, and Yu was curious about it too.
“I'm curious too, but we won't know why or if our idea is right until we find him.” Maron Martin must have had an idea, but the information he gave Yu was limited. “But one thing I do know is that if something has a chance of going wrong, it will go wrong. I think it's wrong for Sony to be with the Redchapel killer. That's why I think it's possible that they're collaborating with the Redchapel killer. There is still the possibility that he might die, but let's not think about that.”
If Sony was dead, they couldn't fulfill Maron's mission. So Sony had to be alive for Yu to succeed.
“If they live together and there is no water mage among them who can produce drinking water, they should be in the area I mentioned. Of course, since the river stretches for kilometers, we can't pinpoint where it is, but I have a guess.”
The forester had told Yu about the caves. There was a cave to the east of the stream, two hours from the stream, and not many people went there.
“The chances of finding him on the first try are slim, but there is a cave two hours east of the stream. There are many caves in the forest, but the area where this cave is located is densely wooded, making it a natural precaution against intruders, and its location to the stream is ideal. This will be the first place to investigate.”
“I think the killer moves around a lot, I don't think we'll find him there,” Raul said knowingly.
“Yes, but I think there is a high probability that he stayed there, and if he stayed there, he must have left a trace. That's your job.”
Raul was a tracker, and if Yu gave him a starting point, he would be better at finding tracks.
“I can say that I grew up without fighting.”
There had been fights when he was a little boy, but they were child's fights, compared to the adventurers of this world, Yu had never been in a fantastic fight.
“So I don't know how strong the warriors of this world are. How strong do you think the Redchapel Killer is in a fight? Sivina, can you take him one on one?”
“Only the best can become knights,” Sivina said. “I trust in my fighting strength.”
“I want to rely on your fighting strength.”
But he could not trust blindly. William Berry had killed three knights, two of them old, and this was simple proof that knights were not immortal.
Of course, the killer's fighting style was not the same as that of the knights, and he attacked them when they were not holding swords. Still, it would have been a mistake to underestimate his fighting strength.
“How many people can you fight at the same time?”
“Two or three, if my opponents are average warriors from Rolderhelm or El.” El was the island where Sivina's country, Elhaven, was located.
“I expected to hear a better answer.”
He had imagined Sivina as someone who could fight five men at once. After all, she had made a bold statement with saying ‘only the best can become knight.’
“One person against multiple opponents, it is the mages who can fight against such disadvantageous situations. They can fight with more than one person because they can put distance between themselves and their opponents.”
“Yurine is right,” Sivina supported Yurine's idea. “No matter how good I am, if three people swing swords at me, one of them will hit me, whether I jump or leap. After all, I am not a Morning Knight.”
“When you said the best, I thought you were very powerful.”
“She is.” Ana, who had only been listening for a while, spoke up in defense of her friend, as Sivina had just done. "The people in Rolderhelm and Sivina's hometown El are way above the average of this world, so Sivina tries not to talk big. But I saw her fighting ten men at once. She killed them all."
Yu had thought the whole world was full of crazy powers, Ana's words now intrigued him.
Ana continued. “So if theye are not overpowered brats, Sivina can crush dozens of enemies under her feet, just like a Morning Knight!” She said the last sentence with such fervor that even Yu could have admired Sivina.
Sivina's face flushed as the tips of her pink lips curled up slightly, sweetly averting her sea-green eyes from Ana.
“I've heard that shy people are more trustworthy. Let's see if it's true.”
After drinking another glass of water, he got up from the table and Yurine joined him.
“Well, there's nothing more to talk about.” He touched Lylphia's shoulder, who was still eating. “Lylphia, come to me after dinner, I need something from you.”